


you're the only one who makes me feel alive

by humanluke



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Carnival, M/M, Mentions of Murder, Vampires, mentions of blood drinking, otherwise this is just cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27158282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanluke/pseuds/humanluke
Summary: Luke isn’t entirely sure why he’s agreed to come to this silly little affair with Ashton, but he knows that it’s making him happy, so here he is.  At the carnival, of all places.  With Ashton.
Relationships: Luke Hemmings/Ashton Irwin
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	you're the only one who makes me feel alive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FayeHunter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FayeHunter/gifts).



> happy happy birthday beautiful em! i wrote this all for you! i hope you enjoy it! thank you for [peyton](http://escapesos.tumblr.com) for making sure this isn't a disaster and helping me come up with a plot! come see me on [tumblr](http://cakelftv.tumblr.com)!!

Luke isn’t entirely sure why he’s agreed to come to this silly little affair with Ashton, but he knows that it’s making him happy, so here he is. At the carnival, of all places. With Ashton. 

He hadn’t been one to dwell on such things as love or hope or even be romantic in the slightest -- had spent his many years of immortality fucking around and having a good time. That was until he’d met Ashton. 

He’d been on this Earth for hundreds of years now, had been with multiple lovers of every sexuality, every gender, every flavor of the earth. But when he met Ashton, something pulled him in. Not in the way it normally did for him -- not sexual compulsion, bloodlust, the generic craving of having warm skin against his pallid, cold skin. No, it was something else entirely. He enjoyed spending time with him -- waking up with him in the morning, going to bed with him at night. 

He was glad that the myths and legends about vampires were mostly untrue for him, that he could live his life without being fearful of the sun, or have to sleep in a coffin (or have to sleep at all, but he’d become a pro at pretending to be able to over the last year or so with Ashton, which was a pleasant gift). Sure, he was a little weaker during the day, and he still required blood to live, but his job at the local hospital took care of that tidbit for him, at the very least. 

His only issue was that Ashton was not aware of his proclivity to immortality, or the flavor of it. He had excuses for everything -- he had poor circulation, that was why he was so cold. He could still breathe, his heart still fluttered beneath his ribcage, at a much slower rate however. Bradycardia was his excuse for that. He could still eat real food if he wanted to (not out of necessity), so he opted to eat meals with Ashton. Food was tasteless to him anyways, but he did it for him and was always more than convincing when eating his cooking that it was fantastic. It always smelled like it was, so he was positive he wasn’t incorrect there. 

He would do anything and everything for Ashton -- he’d done so many things he’d never made the time for before. He’d never made the effort to have a relationship with anyone longer than a few days, so a whole year was a new feat. His close friends in the local brood were confused at the sudden change in him -- they’d known him for a long time by now, at least a century and a half, and he’d never made them believe he could ever settle down with someone. Luke’s philosophy in his afterlife had always been that being with one person for all of eternity would be far too difficult -- he didn’t trust himself not to stray. So he’d fucked around for a long time. 

Until Ashton. 

Which is why they’re here, at this carnival, Ashton tugging him along eagerly and turning with glee at every twist and turn. There was so much food, so many games, a fair number of rides and other attractions. The rides bothered Luke because he thought they looked unsafe -- he would survive if something broke, certainly, but the fragility of Ashton and his heart excitedly jackhammering under his rib cage was not lost on him. He thinks he fears for him more than necessary, and Ashton comments on it frequently, but he can’t help it. He knows how fragile human beings are, as someone with the blood of countless victims on his hands. (He regrets most of them, he really does, but getting blood was not as easy back in the day as it is now. And gaining control takes time and patience.)

The sheer number of people was probably the most jarring thing to Luke -- he was grateful he’d chosen to feed before this, since just the volume of beating hearts rushing around him was on the edge of overwhelming. He’s always chalked it up to social anxiety, if he gets hit with something like this when he’s out with Ashton, but tonight was important to him. Important to both of them, since it was their anniversary, now. 

“Come on, can’t we just go on one ride?” Ashton asks him, and his voice is whiny and he’s pouting at him a little bit. One of Luke’s weaknesses was that look on Ashton’s face. He hated disappointing him. “I won’t even pick one that’s all that rickety. Like the bobsleds! Those look like fun!” Luke shifts uncomfortably on his feet, squeezing Ashton’s hand once as he looks them over. They don’t look too dangerous, that much is true at the very least. 

“You can go on them if you want,” he says, smiling at him. “I just don’t know if it’s good for me, you know…” he trails off, shrugging his broad shoulders. Ashton lets out a small oh, that sounds defeated, and Luke is scrambling for words to fix that drop in Ashton’s expression. “I’m sure we can find something we can do though, right? Anything you want. And if you can’t find something else you really want to do… I’ll go on the bobsleds with you. Okay?” Ashton’s expression lifts a little bit, and Luke lets out a sigh of relief. 

“Okay,” he says, a thoughtful look on his face as he looks around. “We can play some games while I think about it?” His hazel eyes are glittering with a hint of excitement, and Luke nods in return, grazing Ashton’s cheek with his lips. 

“Of course we can,” he says with a grin. “Point me in the direction of what you want me to win, and I’ll get it for you.” Ashton grins from ear to ear, and if Luke’s heart was that of a living person’s, it would have fluttered in his chest at the very sight of it. Ashton clutched his hand a little tighter as he tugged Luke along to whichever game he wanted him to win at.

The thing about being supernatural is, you have an advantage over everyone. An incredibly unfair advantage really, especially when you’re hundreds of years old and have so much worldly knowledge and unimportant skills that you don’t even know what to do with them. So it wasn’t really fair for Luke to be playing all these games for Ashton, to win him whichever prizes he wanted. But he wanted Ashton to be happy, and the best way to do that was to give him what he wanted. 

Which made it no surprise when they walked away from the dart toss game with the biggest, most ridiculous looking stuffed animal in Ashton’s arms. (Which Luke was probably going to hog a little bit whenever he was over to Ashton’s, because let’s be real, those were more his speed, and he thinks that Ashton may have just picked it so he could let him keep it.) 

“I didn’t know you were so good at darts,” Ashton laughs a little bit, his head poking out from behind the oversized stuffed animal. “If I’d known that, I would have been taking you to carnivals with me for ages.” Luke lets out a laugh, and Ashton smiles at the sound of it. 

“Well, you know that I’m not all that great with crowds,” he reminds him gently, his eyes still darting around at all the people. He was starting to get a little bit restless here, but the last thing he wanted to do was cut their night short. “I’m having a really nice time tonight, though.” He isn’t lying, not even a little; tonight was something he never wanted to forget. He lets there be a pause between them for a moment, looking over at Ashton softly. “Did you think of what ride you wanted to go on?” Ashton grins at him a little bit, and the glint in his eyes is telling as Luke shoves his hands into his pockets. 

“It’s not a ride, and it’s definitely something we can do that won’t be overwhelming,” he starts, hugging the oversized bear close to his chest. Luke wonders briefly how they’ll be able to do anything with the oversized stuffed animal, but he’s sure someone could hold onto it for them while they do whatever it is Ashton is getting on about. “But I was thinking maybe we could go into the funhouse? It’s just some walking, and nothing scary!” Luke purses his lips a little bit; he’s not sure he knows what a funhouse is, but it doesn’t sound all that bad, if he’s being honest. 

“If that’s what you want to do, then we can do it,” he says, taking his free hand into his own and lacing their fingers together. Ashton beams at him a little bit, leading him towards the large funhouse that is sat in the middle of the carnival. 

“With how weird you are about mirrors, I didn’t think you would agree to do it,” Ashton admits, leaving the large stuffed bear of his with the funhouse attendant. Lule stopped dead in his tracks at the mention of mirrors, and knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep his secret a secret anymore if they went into this place. And the very idea of that was terrifying to him. “So I’m glad that we’re going to do it--”

“Why don’t we go and do something else instead? I’ll go on any ride with you, even the scary ones,” he interjects, trying to hide the panic in his voice. “I just… don’t know if this one will be okay if there’s mirrors, you know I don’t do mirrors…”

“I don’t understand what it is about you and mirrors of all things,” Ashton huffs, pouting his lips a little bit. “Mirrors aren’t even scary! God, I mean, the only things that a mirror would scare is like, a vampire, and we both know those aren’t real!!!” Ashton lets out a hearty laugh, and Luke follows suit, his laugh a lot more dull. “Please? Just for me? There’s only one room with mirrors in it and there’s no one else in there because they’re all on the cooler rides.” He frowns at him again, disappointment shining in those hazel eyes, and Luke wants to give him what he desires. 

He just hopes it doesn’t ruin this thing that they have. 

“Fine,” he mumbles softly, and Ashton grins at him again, tugging him along behind him. Luke’s certain that if he was alive, his heart would be hammering out of his chest, but it stays at that slow, steady pace that it gets to in the afterlife for them. 

Luke is thoroughly impressed by the tricks that this so-called “fun house” was trying to pull on the two of them. Enough so that he momentarily forgets the mirrors with the distractions of moving floors and mazes and rooms that spin enough to make a normal person a little dizzy. It isn’t until they stumble into the mirrored part of the maze -- the last part of it, before the exit, that he feels himself realize that this is it. This is the moment that could make or break their relationship. (Besides the fact that he’s been lying to Ashton for a year. Although he would prefer to call it omitting the truth. Not that it was much better.)

“C’mon, see, the mirrors aren’t going to hurt you or anything, silly,” Ashton laughs as he tugs him into the dimly lit corridor lined with different shaped mirrors that distort your image in a wide array of ways. Luke stumbles behind him, almost tripping over his own feet as he looks around them. He sees the reflection of Ashton surrounding them in all different shapes and sizes. But his eyes fall back onto Ashton, who’s looking around as well, brows slowly knitting themselves together as he pieces together that Luke isn’t appearing in a single one of the mirrors on the walls. 

“They don’t hurt me, but they’re going to hurt you,” he says softly, his voice reverberating a little off of the plastic lining the walls. Ashton continues to look puzzled as he looks between Luke, who’s hand is still firmly in his own, and the reflections surrounding them that omit him. “I’m sorry, Ashton, I didn’t want to have to tell you this way, really--” 

“I don’t understand,” he says, his voice hushed a little as his eyes continue to dart from Luke to the walls. “I don’t… is it a trick? You’re right here, you’re holding my hand, you’re real, you should be showing up, right? Right?” Ashton’s voice becomes more hurried as he speaks, his hazel eyes finally settling on Luke. Luke sighs softly, pulling his hand back from Ashton’s, his blue eyes downcast to the floor. There’s a mirror there, as well, but no reflection jutting down beneath him. As is typical for someone of his type. 

“You already said it before,” he says softly. “Before you even came in here. Why else would you think I’m so cold all the time but don’t need to be warmed up? Or my heart really beats so slowly? Or that I can’t have mirrors in my house, Ashton?” He looks up at him, fangs on full display in front of him for the first time and Ashton makes a soft noise. Luke can’t tell if it’s a sound of fright or of arousal, and that throws him for a little bit of a loop. “You know what I am, say it.” 

Ashton stares at him for a beat, swallowing hard, and Luke follows the motion, suddenly captivated by the way that his throat moves since his fangs have come up to bat. “But… I thought they… that you… you’re a vampire?” It’s more in disbelief than in fright, and Luke thanks his stars for that, at the very least. “Vampires are… real. And I’ve been dating one for a year?” 

“There’s no good way to casually bring it up in conversation,” Luke starts, and he’s right, there isn’t an easy way to go, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m a vampire, thanks for the fun night.’ “I wanted to tell you… I was going to tell you, I just didn’t know how, or when… I’d been talking to Michael about it--”

“Michael’s a vampire too!” Ashton says, his voice a little higher pitched. Luke can hear the way his heart is pounding in his chest, frightened and anxious and unsure of what comes next. 

“Yes,” Luke breathes. “Calum too. All three of us. There’s tons of us, we’re everywhere. We camouflage ourselves into everyday lives a lot easier than people seem to think we can. Hence all the stupid stories about coffins, and sparkling…” He spits the last word like it leaves a bad taste in his tongue. Stephanie Meyer had no right to defile vampires that way. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, I’m sorry, I just--”

“You’re lucky that I find this really fucking hot and not absolutely terrifying, because if you were going to kill me, you would have done it by now.” Ashton makes a logical and completely true point there -- Luke had no intentions of hurting Ashton. He never had, and he never will. 

“Of course I wouldn’t hurt you,” he says softly, his blue eyes falling onto the hazel ones. He knows Ashton is holding up some form of facade, because he is clearly anxious and terrified right now, but he’s holding up the way that Luke had always hoped for. “I love you.” He hears Ashton’s heart flutter a little bit, and if he had the capability of blushing, his cheeks would be pink right now. 

“You love me?” he says softly, playing with the bottom of his shirt. Luke just nods in response, and the fangs are back in their place, his plain white teeth on display as he offers him a simple smile. “Well… I’m a little upset that you’ve just lied to me for a year… but… I do love you too.” Ashton is blushing, and Luke misses the simplicity of being human for that fraction of a second. 

“Glad we’re on the same page,” he hums softly. “Can we… get out of here? Go back to your place, and we can properly talk about this?” He offers his hand again, and Ashton stares at it for a moment. Contemplating. The tension is thick for a beat, until he takes his hand, and Luke feels like he can breathe again. (Not that it’s necessary, totally. But the sentiment is nice.)

“Yeah, we can… we can talk,” he says. He tugs Luke towards the door, that same grin from earlier back on his face, despite the way his tell-tale heart beats beneath his ribs. “But after that… you can show me what those fangs can do.”


End file.
